Dà Zhuàng, hexagram 34

A man of stone

God made mankind from clay. He blew life into them. But man prefers to be a stone, so he bakes himself into a brick, strong and invulnerable. Rigid and square, a foundation that supports the building of mankind.
God never had a building in His mind, just life. If man stays the life he essentially is, flexible, like the earth he comes from, his strength will be alive too, never rigid but able to cope with every challenge.

Hex.34

DÀ ZHUÀNG: The first character, dà (1) is a big man, meaning big. The second, zhuàng (old way of writing it: 4), is composed of 'left half of a tree' (bàn, 2), a plank, bed, stiff, strong. The other part of zhuang (3) is a 'scholar' nowadays, but originally this character was a phallus or maybe a weapon, and indicated any impressive man: warrior, officer and such. If the left tree-half is written reversed then it is the right tree-half piàn, and it means a slice of wood. It might be they were originally not mirror images. This left half was a mould for making bricks, and the 'scholar' was earth, which is written almost the same. But this is not certain, and the phallus fits very well in the meaning of this hexagram. DÀ ZHUÀNG: robust, magnificent; majestic; strong; sturdy, in the prime of life, make better/stronger, member of the Zhuang people.

  The trigrams: Thunder up in Heaven:
  There are not many things which can compare with the awe-inspiring force of a thunderstorm in the mountains. Nothing softens the sound, nothing in the way of lightning, nothing distracting, just naked rock and the elements.
  The noble one will not tread a path without ritual. When inner creativity and law accord to Heaven, and give life to one's actions, everything one does and lives will be great and correct.
  Ego is the power with which we can tread, but it is extremely important that it acts according to laws of honesty, compassion and wisdom. Ego can be like a ram, using its horns instead of its brains.

More about hex. 33 and 34